"The thinking fan's soccer management game" PC Format Magazine

OPPOSITION TACTICS

The above magazine's comment "The thinking fan's soccer management game" referred to the level of tactical knowhow that SaaP demanded from you to be successful. That was in an earlier version of SaaP. Since SaaP 2009 release 2 that tactical knowhow has jumped to a new level. To begin with there are now up to eight different core starting formations used by opposition managers including the more recent 4-2-3-1 and the differnt 4-5-1 setups - from "parking the bus" to flexible "flooding" systems). Each of these formations have small variations for normal, attacking and defensive periods of a game. You can find yourself handling up to 24 different formations in only a few weeks of football. Your assistant coach will offer you his thoughts on the formation a team will use when he's heard the starting lineup an hour before a match as in the screen top right.

He also offers his opinion about the opposition manager and what he gets up to. However, opposition managers may sometimes be unpredictable, and will almost certainly make in-match changes if the state of the game requires it. You'll need to judge for yourself the right tactics needed to get the result you want. But your first preparation for the coming match takes place in the "bootroom" where you set about informing your squad of the players they'll have to outplay. Your chief scout will describe the typical lineup for the team (without knowing the actual one) and will describe the skills of individual players so that your own players are aware of the dangers (the lower right screen). Informing your players of what they're likely to face and what they need to do win this game should be done in your bootroom team-talk.

PRE-MATCH OPPOSITION FORMATION OPINION ON OPPOSITION PLAYER